Tote boxes are containers commonly used in industry for holding, storing and shipping industrial parts or finished goods. Typical tote boxes may comprise open top, bin-like containers which may loosely receive parts, such as machined elements. The sizes and shapes of said boxes vary considerably, depending upon the objects which they are intended to contain.
In typical use, tote boxes are filled with finished or partly finished parts or goods and then they may be transported to a different location for unloading. Thereafter, if they are made of fiberboard or other board-like material, they typically are discarded. If they are made of a sturdy, more expensive material, they may be reused. However, to reuse the tote boxes, they must be returned empty to their initial point of loading.
It is frequently desirable to close the tops of the loaded tote boxes to protect the parts contained therein. Consequently, sturdy covers are needed for this purpose. Also, in order to make the shipping or movement of the boxes more efficient, it is desirable to stack the boxes one upon another. Thus, when the boxes are empty, the covered, stacked empty boxes take up as much space as the filled boxes. Therefore, it would be desirable to reduce the amount of volume occupied by each box when the box is empty and particularly, when it is in transit to the point where it will be re-filled.
Because of the expense of shipping bulky empty boxes, frequently they have been discarded rather than returned for reuse. Moreover, the shipping of empty boxes has typically resulted in considerable damage to the boxes as they have been relatively free to move somewhat, due to their light weight, and to strike against each other while in transit.
Some common forms of tote boxes, such as fiberboard boxes and wood boxes, are relatively flammable which requires additional precautions in storing and using them. Also, because they can be damaged relatively easily, they are not suitable for multiple reuses.
There has long been a need for strong, inexpensive, substantially fire-proof, damage resistant containers which can be repeatedly reused as tote boxes and which can be stacked when full and nested when empty to facilitate and reduce the cost of shipping and handling the boxes. This invention relates to such improved containers or tote boxes.